About

Myongyee Jin (진명이) is a papermaker, printmaker, bookmaker, poongmul/samulnori drummer, grantwriter, nonprofit administrator, and paralibrarian. Born in Korea and shaped in Chicago, she is now based in New York City. Drawing from her Korean heritage and experiences living in the U.S. as an immigrant, Myong creates work that plays with language, presence, and knowledge. Her work in letterpress printing and artist’s books questions what it is to read and write, and what it is to learn and share what we know. Recently her practice has become more focused on the labor-intensive making of hanji (Korean paper) by hand and related craft traditions of Korea (jiseung, joomchi, bojagi). Through this work, Myong seeks to honor the quiet parts of our past while finding new outlets to express an embodied knowledge of our places in the world.

Myong is the 2026-2027 Studio178 Artist-in-Residence at Cornerstone STUDIOS, and teaches letterpress printing and book & paper arts at Center for Book Arts. She has exhibited at NoMAA Gallery and Center for Book Arts, and received scholarship support from Penland School of Craft, Dieu Donné, Guild of Bookworkers, and Manhattan Graphics Center. She has studied with Aimee Lee and Steph Rue in the practice of traditional hanji-making and related Korean paper crafts. Inspired by hanji and motivated by the deep personal and cultural significance that the chestnut represents for her, Myong is developing a method to make bamji, or chestnut paper.

After graduating from the University of Chicago with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, Myong spent close to 15 years working in academic and special collections libraries. She has worked with rare books, archives, serials, and collections for law, art, and theological studies at the University of Chicago, Newberry Library, Fales Library, Center for Fiction, and Columbia University. In 2013, she was recognized by the New York Foundation for the Arts as an Emerging Leader in Arts Administration for her work in development at Center for Book Arts. Since 2015, Myong has been a Collective Member of Word Up Community Bookshop - a nonprofit bookshop and arts space cooperatively run in Upper Manhattan to support neighbors in living informed and expressive lives.